Does conventional medicine need rebranding?

Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe Living Life to the Max
There is a topical hot debate as to just how many people Walter Magaya managed to pull for his special all-night prayer session dubbed “The Night of Turnaround” in Harare last weekend and why exactly they were there; Magaya himself or Tocky Vibes.

There has even been one fight been a couple of colleagues over the issue getting settled in court. Depending on who is talking the figure is anything between 150 000 and 300 000. With people travelling from various countries and parts of Zimbabwe what is undeniable is that there was a large crowd, by any standard.

Compared to the number of people who turn up for conventional medicine expos at any given time, whatever the actual figure may have been, Magaya’s crowd was incredibly massive. The attendance at the expos is pitiful by comparison and I am doubtful that any of them could claim to ever have gathered a crowd of even 10 000, which is a great shame.

Especially when you consider that at the health expos people usually get free health checks which inform them on things like blood sugar levels, body mass index and blood pressure status, three of the basic things you need to know about your own body, unless you like nasty surprises like just falling down one day.

In the same vein, the number of outlets of various descriptions offering herbal remedies with apparently miraculous qualities seems to be increasing each day, showing that demand is far outstripping supply.

The ability of alternate healers to pull crowds who hope to be cured has reached insane levels in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the world. It looks like there is a prophet under every shrub in the country. The mere possibility of being the recipient of a miracle seems to trump the unexciting journey of tests and sometimes painful and lifelong treatments.

While the law and the enforcement thereof has too many loopholes allowing charlatans to pass themselves as messiahs, miracle workers and holders of the elixir of life without the need to prove those claims, it cannot be denied that conventional medicine has lost its appeal to many.

This is partly due to a continued barrage of negative perceptions pushed by people who tend to make blanket statements. Generalised statements are never a good way to sum up the situation on the ground, but they tend to prevail as the ultimate summation of a situation.

Many are of the opinion that service at the public hospitals is shoddy and there is no medicine. Rude staffers, a cavalier attitude towards clients as well as interminable time spent waiting to get the simplest of services has turned public opinion against hospitals and clinics, especially the public ones where the majority of the population must go.

Yet the 2014 Africa Prosperity Report launched in Kigali last week says that Zimbabwe is one of the top eight countries on the continent whose health infrastructure has improved over the past year. Presumably they are looking at achievements like the acquisition of … machinery this year.

We also have the successful separation of Siamese twins that was carried out by local doctors among other highly notable developments

So where is the missing link? Why is conventional medicine which has repeatedly been proved to be the most effective when it comes to treating and managing illnesses losing the war to unproven claims of miracle healings?

I personally refuse the excuse that it is all a matter of prohibitive costs in the conventional medicine route.

I say so because one way or another people are paying dearly for the alternatives that they chose. Prophetic intervention and purported herbal medications do not come cheap even if in the former case the transaction is often not a direct sale approach as people pay an arm and a leg for regalia then supposedly receive healing for free.

The problems seems to lead back to some of our practitioners. Stories abound of health professionals advising clients to go to alternative healers when the chips are really down. It has become common to see nurses and doctors and other conventional medicine practitioners spotting regalia from churches that claim to perform miracles. What message does this send to the patient, I wonder?

There is an allegation that a medical doctor directed people to a prophetic healer on national TV.

I did not personally witness this, but it was a report that came up several times as I researched for the writing of this article, so it is likely to be true. So is it any wonder that the public has lost confidence in conventional or Western medicine?

The current strike by doctors in most public institutions has not helped the situation. Junior doctors downed tools demanding a basic salary of US$1 200 and other perks like duty-free car imports. Some senior doctors have since joined the strike leading to Parirenyatwa Hospital closing a number of key departments including the all- critical paediatric ward. This is disastrous as, doubtless, there are many people who are dying as a result of this development.

There is no doubt that conventional medicine has its shortcomings and there are cases where healing has occurred due to herbal treatments and what can be termed supernatural processes. I do not personally have anything against people getting healed by any means possible.

But at the end of the day, statistics say that each single person stands a better chance of getting treated or healed through the conventional route rather than the alternatives. Too many people with chronic and untreatable diseases are dying painful deaths as they await miracles that will never come either from a prophet or an herbal elixir.

In most cases such patients end up returning to conventional medicine when their cases are extreme and their treatment is more costly.

This directly impacts on everyone else by pushing up costs and taking up more resources which could be directed elsewhere.

So why do these alternates continue to get more popular in spite of no statistical evidence that they are proving effective in the fight against pandemic and non-pandemic diseases? I think the answer is simple: Conventional medical practice is guided by rules and ethics which do not limit the alternate healers.

The alternate healers seem to be free to carry out sales and marketing blitzes in which they can apparently get away with the most outrageous claims.

Perhaps it is time for the stakeholders in the health industry to find ways of rebranding the traditional medicine services. No one is saying that it is perfect, but numbers say that it is the best option that we have for now. Someone needs to come up with a strategy to once again make clinics and hospitals the first choice for treatment, with alternatives being used in conjunction with, rather than as substitutes for proper medical attention.

[email protected]